Crested Butte

What I saw on the streets of Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Colo., in August could not have been more frightening if it had been the ghost of mass murderer Ted Bundy.It was a fat man with a doughnut and a cellular phone.I know a construction foreman when I see one.Sure enough, as I made my way on up the hill I saw a crane, some hippies in hard hats and several big piles of dirt that didn't look like they had grown naturally. I also heard hammering and banging, the buzzing of electric things and the grumbling shriek of diesel truck engines in distress.

A tour of Ireland's Atlantic Coast, overseen by guidebook author Patricia Preston, is scheduled for Oct. 20-28. The trip begins in Shannon and visits the Connemara Heritage and History Centre, Kylemore Abbey, counties Clare and Limerick, Blarney Castle, the Ring of Kerry and Killarney National Park. The per-person double rate is $1,199, which includes air fare, seven nights in three hotels, eight full breakfasts, seven dinners, transport and admissions. Details: 845-758-1232; ireland-withpatpreston.

REPEAT CHAMP. Veteran World Cup ski racer Doug Lewis retained his downhill title at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Crested Butte, Colo. Lewis skied the 1.5-mile course in a time of 1:23.80, beating Andreas Rickenbach by .27 of a second.

What I saw on the streets of Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Colo., in August could not have been more frightening if it had been the ghost of mass murderer Ted Bundy.It was a fat man with a doughnut and a cellular phone.I know a construction foreman when I see one.Sure enough, as I made my way on up the hill I saw a crane, some hippies in hard hats and several big piles of dirt that didn't look like they had grown naturally. I also heard hammering and banging, the buzzing of electric things and the grumbling shriek of diesel truck engines in distress.

DOWNHILL SKIER Bill Johnson says he will retire from amateur racing by the end of this year, meaning the U.S. Alpine Championships under way in Crested Butte, Colo., will be his last race of any consequence. ''It's been a long, good career,'' Johnson said. ''My back's bothering me a little bit, and it's time to go on to something else.'' Johnson, who will turn 30 next month, plans to make a formal announcement of his plans at a news conference tonight. His career options reportedly include becoming the official spokesman for the Crested Butte resort and a possible stint in pro racing, either on the U.S. tour or in Japan.

A jury awarded $2.6 million in damages to relatives and survivors of a gas explosion that demolished the Crested Butte State Bank last year. A Denver District Court jury on Wednesday awarded $820,000 to the mother of an employee who died and an additional $1.78 million to six injured people and their families. Lawyers for the relatives and survivors claimed that Empire Gas Corp. knew the Crested Butte system was antiquated and ignored reports of a major leak. The March 6, 1990, blast was blamed on a leaking propane gas main near the bank.

A tour of Ireland's Atlantic Coast, overseen by guidebook author Patricia Preston, is scheduled for Oct. 20-28. The trip begins in Shannon and visits the Connemara Heritage and History Centre, Kylemore Abbey, counties Clare and Limerick, Blarney Castle, the Ring of Kerry and Killarney National Park. The per-person double rate is $1,199, which includes air fare, seven nights in three hotels, eight full breakfasts, seven dinners, transport and admissions. Details: 845-758-1232; ireland-withpatpreston.

Tired of all the snowbirds flocking to your favorite stores every winter, clogging the aisles? Ready to scream the next time you see a befuddled driver make a left turn from the far right lane? I have a solution: Invade someone else's hometown. Go skiing.The idea isn't original. In a recent trip to Crested Butte, Colo., it seemed like half the folks I met on the slopes were from Florida. When it gets cold up North, the Yankees head South, but we Southerners head West. And some of us are on skis for the first time.

The DSJ Companies, an Orlando-based real estate developer and property manager, has reorganized in anticipation of consolidating four divisions into a single office in the Metcalf Building on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando. The company will consolidate in the building, also known in its early days as the Orlando Bank and Trust Co., by late summer when a $2 million renovation is complete.In the reorganization, Dales S. Jones, chief executive officer of the company, appointed J. Wallace Henderson president of both DSJ Developments Inc. and DSJ Realty Co. Jones also appointed H.R. Fetter director of corporate development and selected Stephen P. Simmons as corporate director of finance for The DSJ Companies.

Every skier who has ever thought about a destination vacation to the Rocky Mountain snow country has heard glowing tales of Vail and Aspen, North America's most elite winter resorts.In those glamorous, glittering and high-priced Colorado ski towns, reservations to exclusive gourmet restaurants must be made weeks in advance, upscale second homes are priced in seven figures, ''free'' parking spaces are harder to find than in downtown New York or San Francisco, and celebrated actors and politicians often are more accessible than in Hollywood or Washington, D.C.But it isn't necessary to take out a second mortgage on your house to afford a destination vacation to all of North America's ski towns.

The mall or the mountains? It's a question you might want to chew on while the turkey is settling next weekend.For some, maybe most, there's no question about it - shopping is what one does in December. Shopping is what everyone does in December and, as a matter of fact, there's hardly enough December to accommodate the shopping that must be done, not to mention dragging the plastic Santa Claus up to the roof and nailing burned-out lights all over the front of the house. Then there are cookies to be baked; stuff to wrap; post office lines; a pine tree to be wrestled into submission; Grinches and Scrooges on TV; and the office party where you can spend a little of your spare time with the people you're already tired of 40 hours a week.

You ride up, you slide down, then you drink.That's snow skiing in a nutshell. I can't think of a simpler concept, unless maybe it's snowboarding, in which you don't have to simultaneously be in charge of two independent feet. Keeping track of left and right might be a little on the high end of the thinking spectrum for snowboarders.But enough about them, let's talk about us. Skiers.A lot of decision-makers like to ski because skiing is basically a vacation from decision-making. Gravity does most of your thinking.

Tired of all the snowbirds flocking to your favorite stores every winter, clogging the aisles? Ready to scream the next time you see a befuddled driver make a left turn from the far right lane? I have a solution: Invade someone else's hometown. Go skiing.The idea isn't original. In a recent trip to Crested Butte, Colo., it seemed like half the folks I met on the slopes were from Florida. When it gets cold up North, the Yankees head South, but we Southerners head West. And some of us are on skis for the first time.

A jury awarded $2.6 million in damages to relatives and survivors of a gas explosion that demolished the Crested Butte State Bank last year. A Denver District Court jury on Wednesday awarded $820,000 to the mother of an employee who died and an additional $1.78 million to six injured people and their families. Lawyers for the relatives and survivors claimed that Empire Gas Corp. knew the Crested Butte system was antiquated and ignored reports of a major leak. The March 6, 1990, blast was blamed on a leaking propane gas main near the bank.

I expected to return from Crested Butte, Colorado, and tell you all sorts of horror stories about my almost-first-time-attempt at snow skiing.But nothing horrible happened. Not to me anyway. Plenty of horrible things happened to my wife. And plenty of horrible things happened to my good friend, the famous restaurant critic Scott Joseph, who returned to Florida on crutches, which explains why his reviews might have new emphasis on handicapped access in the weeks ahead.The things that happened to Scott and Debbie were so horrible, so humiliating, so utterly typical of what happens to flatlanders from Florida who venture west in the winter, that I could not possibly embarrass the two of them by divulging the details in this column.

DOWNHILL SKIER Bill Johnson says he will retire from amateur racing by the end of this year, meaning the U.S. Alpine Championships under way in Crested Butte, Colo., will be his last race of any consequence. ''It's been a long, good career,'' Johnson said. ''My back's bothering me a little bit, and it's time to go on to something else.'' Johnson, who will turn 30 next month, plans to make a formal announcement of his plans at a news conference tonight. His career options reportedly include becoming the official spokesman for the Crested Butte resort and a possible stint in pro racing, either on the U.S. tour or in Japan.

You ride up, you slide down, then you drink.That's snow skiing in a nutshell. I can't think of a simpler concept, unless maybe it's snowboarding, in which you don't have to simultaneously be in charge of two independent feet. Keeping track of left and right might be a little on the high end of the thinking spectrum for snowboarders.But enough about them, let's talk about us. Skiers.A lot of decision-makers like to ski because skiing is basically a vacation from decision-making. Gravity does most of your thinking.

I expected to return from Crested Butte, Colorado, and tell you all sorts of horror stories about my almost-first-time-attempt at snow skiing.But nothing horrible happened. Not to me anyway. Plenty of horrible things happened to my wife. And plenty of horrible things happened to my good friend, the famous restaurant critic Scott Joseph, who returned to Florida on crutches, which explains why his reviews might have new emphasis on handicapped access in the weeks ahead.The things that happened to Scott and Debbie were so horrible, so humiliating, so utterly typical of what happens to flatlanders from Florida who venture west in the winter, that I could not possibly embarrass the two of them by divulging the details in this column.

Every skier who has ever thought about a destination vacation to the Rocky Mountain snow country has heard glowing tales of Vail and Aspen, North America's most elite winter resorts.In those glamorous, glittering and high-priced Colorado ski towns, reservations to exclusive gourmet restaurants must be made weeks in advance, upscale second homes are priced in seven figures, ''free'' parking spaces are harder to find than in downtown New York or San Francisco, and celebrated actors and politicians often are more accessible than in Hollywood or Washington, D.C.But it isn't necessary to take out a second mortgage on your house to afford a destination vacation to all of North America's ski towns.

REPEAT CHAMP. Veteran World Cup ski racer Doug Lewis retained his downhill title at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Crested Butte, Colo. Lewis skied the 1.5-mile course in a time of 1:23.80, beating Andreas Rickenbach by .27 of a second.